Whicker: Cubs' Kyle Hendricks proves speed is overrated

Sept. 13, 2016

Updated Sept. 14, 2016 5:47 p.m.

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Cubs starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks, center, smiles in the dugout after being removed from Monday's game against the Cardinals during the ninth inning in St. Louis. Hendricks had a no-hitter until the Cardinals' Jeremy Hazelbaker hit a solo home run in the ninth. JEFF ROBERSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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The Cubs' Kyle Hendricks has the lowest ERA in the National League at 2.03, and threw eight hitless innings against the Cardinals on Monday. MORRY GASH, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cubs starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks, center, smiles in the dugout after being removed from Monday's game against the Cardinals during the ninth inning in St. Louis. Hendricks had a no-hitter until the Cardinals' Jeremy Hazelbaker hit a solo home run in the ninth.JEFF ROBERSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Those who throw 95 mph and faster can pitch at USC, UCLA, Florida, Texas, many other T-shirt havens.

Those who don’t throw 90 mph can pitch at Dartmouth. That’s in Hanover, N.H., where the game is sometimes dependent on the snow blower.

That is where Kyle Hendricks headed after he dominated Orange County baseball at Capistrano Valley High.

“He wanted to go to Stanford,” said John Hendricks, his dad, who sat through a 32-degree doubleheader at Yale one day. “It’s been the same story going back to Little League. He didn’t throw hard, so people said he couldn’t pitch.”

On Monday night, Hendricks threw eight hitless innings at St. Louis. Jeremy Hazelbaker ruined it with a home run in the ninth, but Hendricks still won. He is 15-7, the third hardest-to-hit pitcher in the National League, and he ranks 2, 2 and 2 in on-base percentage-against, slugging percentage-against and OPS-against.

He also ranks second in the NL in OPS (0.960) and is first in ERA (2.03, or .0.44 ahead of second-place Noah Syndergaard).

So Hendricks, 26, who will occasionally throw a 91 mph fastball on the open road with the wind at his back, is a viable candidate for the Cy Young Award.

His tougher competition will be getting a Game 1 or a Game 2 in the postseason, for the pitching-bloated Chicago Cubs.

“They ask me if I’m surprised and I guess I am but not really,” John Hendricks said. “It’s always been his pattern. But he’s doing it against the best hitters in the world.”

Hendricks is even being compared to ex-Cub and current Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, which almost floors him. But it’s the same principle. Hit spots, don’t walk people and compete. Maddux used to say that movement, command, pitch selection and changing speeds were the secrets. “Notice I didn’t say anything about velocity,” he would add.

“I was told by my dad and a lot of other people to not try to be something I’m not,” Hendricks said a couple of weeks ago when the Cubs visited Dodger Stadium. “That’s what I try to tell kids at camps. I never had the power stuff. Move the ball and manage the fastball and you can still succeed.”

Kevin Kennedy, the Dodgers’ radio analyst, recently pointed out that hitters are now accustomed to all the 97 mph crackle. Far tougher to adjust to something slower, or better-placed. Hendricks is showing a whole cross-section of young pitchers that the old way to win still works, like a vinyl album, superseded but not invalidated.

“The radar gun has ruined baseball,” said John Hendricks. “One day a couple of years ago, I saw some scouts at Angel Stadium and they asked how hard Kyle was throwing. I said, ‘Oh, he’s up to 55 now.’ They looked at me like I was the biggest smart-ass around.”

Hendricks literally made every All-Star team in every minor league, coming up the ladder. That was after Texas took him in the seventh round and then shipped him to the Cubs for Ryan Dempster, who now wears horse-blanket sport coats on MLB Network and gets to comment on Hendricks.

There was only one unsatisfying year. In 2015 the Cubs rose to the playoffs but Hendricks struggled, by his standards, going 8-7 with a 3.95 ERA.

“He had some stuff going on that isn’t public, but mainly he had dropped to 85,” John Hendricks said. “That meant there wasn’t much differential with his changeup.”

“I had become a two-pitch pitcher,” Kyle said. “I had mechanical issues and it was hard to focus on pitching. Bos (pitching coach Chris Bosio) worked on it and got me back on my back leg, and I started throwing more curves and four-seamers to go with my changeup and two-seamer. It opened up things for me.”

Hendricks also spent a stretchy summer with Tom Wilson, formerly the Angels’ strength coach. A yoga program got him in better shape and allowed him to throw harder. Hendricks and Wilson have worked together for years, and Clyde Wright, the old Angels lefty who works for the club in alumni affairs, was one of Hendricks’ first coaches. Rod Carew, awaiting a heart transplant, also befriended the young right-hander.

John once ran San Juan Hills Golf Course but now drives limousines in Evanston, Ill. for a family friend. Kyle lives four blocks from Wrigley Field, where nobody has thrown a World Series pitch since Oct. 10, 1945. Theoretically, it will be cold then.

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